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Delzoun
Delzoun was the great Northkingdom of the Dwarves. Founded in -3900 DR The name survives as a middle name among modern day dwarves, one of much prestige. In -100 DR, Delzoun fell to the phaerimms and other dangers. The surface settlements survive the fall, such as Citadel Adbar, Citadel Felbarr, Mithral Hall, and Sundabar, but the underground settlements do not. A Tale of (Two Subterranean) Cities In -940 DR, Delzoun, the great Northkingdom of the dwarves, was rocked by the proclamation of Clanmaster Ilgostrogue of Clan Sstar that he would be leading a great expedition west to the forgotten delves of Gharraghaur seeking to reclaim untold lost riches. His grand pronouncement occurred in the wake of his failure to attain the throne of Delzoun, for that great realm's monarchs had ever been elected by a great conclave of clanmasters, with the chosen dwarf forsaking his own clan, home and forge to become "of the Delzoun" and to rule in the interests of all, not just clan and kin. And so it was that Dennin, son of Idrin, formerly of Clan Worldthrone was chosen to rule the Northkingdom by that assembly of longbeards, and the ambitious Ilgostrogue failed in his bid to rule. For two winters Ilgostrogue gathered many young dwarves to his cause and in -938 DR, fully a quarter of the Northkingdom's population, 35,000 grim-faced dwarves, left Delzoun for the opportunity to obtain riches and glory. By the time they had passed through Dead Orc Pass and trekked west of present-day Sundabar, the orcs were striking at them every day and when they arrived at the site of present day Mirabar their ranks were depleted and exhausted. They had left in their wake a mountain of dead orcs that could feed all the carrion birds in all the Realms for a hundred years, but the toll had been a costly one. As they settled into the ruins of Gharraghaur, disillusionment claimed thousands more as they traded the rigours of the Northland road for the stark reality of having to rebuild a ruined city, while constantly beset by orcs, giants and worse. The brutal trek had taken its toll upon Ilgostrogue as well. Denying the folly of his expedition and fighting to tread the deep waters of his own guilt, the clanmaster was no longer content with reclaiming lost Gharraghaur. Consumed by delusions of creating his own grand dwarven empire, he drove his loyal followers onwards, to the end of Barakmornolor and the great sea. Thousands of dwarves stayed behind, lead by Mirab, blood of Beldas, eking out an existence as they sought to clear out the ancient mineworkings of Gharraghaur known as "the Cut". Ilgostrogue died happy when he saw the sea, believing in his final delirium that his vision of empire had come to pass. But those left behind him understood the true nature of their situation. The remaining twelve thousand dwarves were far from home, in a wild land where the weather can claim many more than the orcs and giants combined, and they feared for the future. Councils were called even as the first cold blasts of the long winter began, and the consensus at first was to return and set up around Mirabar (as Mirab's Cut became quickly known), but Beerkanstrogue, son of Ilgostrogue, planted his booted feet squarely upon the ground and called for the assembled dwarves to pay homage to the vision of his father. As so those dwarves, loyal to the last, worked as only dwarves can work, and constructed the city of Ironmaster. A tribute to Ilgostrogue, the city was located in a rocky valley not far from where the clanmaster first looked out over the sea, and stands today as a grim symbol of dwarven arrogance and resilience. The diaspora of the Northkingdom's dwarves continued in the wake of Ilgostrogue's ill-fated expedition. Using Mirabar as a focal point, great Delzoun transcended its traditional borders and its dwarves ranged across the North, building holds for themselves and (for hire) for men and elves. In -786 DR, Grym, blood of Mirab, was crowned King of Delzoun, ushering in a glorious period of enterprise and expansion. In the wake of a dragonmoot that laid low the great red wyrm Kalamalos "the Blazefang", Grym declared that a great city would be built at the site of the dragon's lair, for earlier expeditions had found the hills east of great Glaurimm (modern: Mount Hotenow) to be rich in minerals and metals, including that most sought after ore: adamantite. For twenty long years the dwarves of Delzoun laboured, and finally the day came when King Grym proclaimed that Delzoun had become greater again, and had a new capital, the mighty underground city of Gauntlgrym. The dwarves of Delzoun in Mirabar had traded with the elves of Iliyanbruen for centuries, and with the establishment of Gauntlgrym their ties became stronger still. In -763 DR, Laranlor Vaelath Never, ruler of Iliyanbruen, received assistance from dwarven artisans of Gauntlgrym to build a stout tower at the site of a human settlement destroyed over 1500 years previously, outside the forest borders of his realm. The dwarves were asked by the elves to build a special chamber, deep beneath the tower, to house a glowing, pulsating sphere, described as being "as large as a storm giant's head" by the dwarven master stonemason Durl "Rockfist". Elven explorers had discovered the sphere in the ruins of Illusk, hidden in an extra-dimensional space, and quickly realised that it was an intact, functional, but quiescent mythallar, likely placed there by the legendary arcanist Jeriah Chronos himself. Laranlor Vaelath had King Grym and the artisans trusted with the work swear solemn oaths of secrecy regarding their labours. Sensing his advantage, King Grym advised the elves that he would provide the assistance as asked, but that the dwarves of Delzoun sought a boon in return. And so it was that the elves of Iliyanbruen agreed to bind the mighty Maegara, a slumbering primordial of fire and doom, to the Fiery Pit deep beneath the city and establish the magical connections that allowed the dwarves of Gauntlgrym to construct the Great Forge. Unmatched was the smithcraft and industry of the dwarves that laboured tirelessly in mighty Gauntlgrym, and storied was the metalwork produced by the smiths and artisans of the city. Matched only by the work of the Ironstars, themselves dwarves of Delzoun, but who had left the confines of the Northkingdom early in its history, wealth flowed into the coffers of the dwarves and their work became legendary. The elves of Iliyanbruen had entrusted the study of the mythallar to their only remaining High Mage, the aged Teldoril. He passed to Arvandor in the Year of Final Fates (-689 DR) and the whole body of lore regarding the mythallar was contained in a kiira entrusted to his chief apprentice. When that wizard sought to attune himself to the kiira, he went promptly insane and fled the tower never to be seen again. Teldoril had become increasingly paranoid regarding the security of the mythallar and had woven multi-layered spell wards around it and the chamber that housed it. Missing with the departure of Teldoril's apprentice were the necessary command words to deactivate the wards protecting the mythallar, and the deaths of a handful of wizards of Iliyanbruen tasked by Laranlor Vaelath with breaching them soon put paid to further attempts to access the sphere. Given its location outside the borders of the realm, the elves of Iliyanbruen contented themselves with keeping an eye on the tower's locale using scrying magic and trusting to the strength of the wards to keep intruders away. The location of fabled Illusk is one that had long held a place in the history of Netheril. As such, it was unsurprising that in the Year of Ancestral Voices (-425 DR) a group of Netherese settlers arrived at the location and re-founded the settlement after fleeing the depredations of the phaerimm. The now badly overgrown Tower of Teldoril was but one of many ruins dotted around the natural harbor and drew little initial interest. That changed when magic was detected there, but the elven wards stood firm and no entrance could be found. The tower remained inviolate for nearly a century when the archwizard Melathlar arrived in Illusk. The town had grown significantly larger and the decades had seen trade commence with the elves to the south and dwarven trading caravans of Gauntlgrym, which would appear every second season or so. Melathlar was the first individual in over two centuries to successfully navigate the wards of Teldoril’s Tower and when he entered the great mythallar chamber beneath it, he realized the prize he had gained. Eager to safeguard his newly-found prize, Melathlar set about establishing control over the mythallar and in the process harnessed its power to raise great walls around the city, establish powerful spellwards and to mould and shape the tower, growing it into a fitting abode for himself. In doing so, Melathlar met his doom however for he found himself inextricably linked with the mythallar, and the more power he drew from it, the more of his life essence was drained by the artifact until he was wholly subsumed by it and into it. His ultimate fate is unknown with some believing he was utterly and irrevocably destroyed, while others believe that he lives on as some form of quasi- ghost, bound forever to the mythallar and through it, the Weave. The great, many-branched tower was known forever more as the Hosttower (for the word “host” is the word for “cursed” in Loross) and became the abode of the arcanist ruling class of Illusk, but it is thought that the mythallar chamber deep beneath remained inviolate, warded by both the magic of the elves of Iliyanbruen and further spell barriers created by the dead Melathlar. The general effects of the mythallar translated however into the tower displaying strange magical phenomena, an affinity for the spells dealing with translocation and the creation of extra-dimensional spaces, and occasional and evermoving areas of wild magic. With the rise of Illusk and the slow decline of Iliyanbruen, it was only a matter of time before the humans discerned that the regular trade visited upon them by the dwarves of the region had to originate from a hidden hold somewhere nearby. Carefully at first, but with ever increasing boldness, the humans of Illusk sought to learn more of what the dwarves called Dundar (literally: under place – the name the dwarves used for Gauntlgrym when around non-dwarves). In -340 DR the arcanist Maerin was the first human to ever tread the upper halls of Gauntlgrym. He was granted an audience with King Besendar of Delzoun and after protracted negotiations it was agreed that the dwarves would construct an upper city for the humans who wished to live and work with the dwarves as well as create a site to facilitate trade. And so it was that the artisans and stonemasons of Delzoun labored for a further fourteen years to build Gauntulgrym, the upper city to the great dwarven city of the depths. While doing so they strengthened the defenses of the original city and put in place magic to prevent human incursion into Gauntlgrym proper. For over two hundred years the dwarves and the humans lived and worked in relative harmony, although there was constant friction between the mistrustful “old guard” dwarves of Gauntlgrym and the humans and humanocentric Stout Folk who elected to live in Gauntulgrym above. All that they had achieved and worked for however was swept away in the great conflict known to sages as the Orc Marches. In their pride the dwarves of Gauntlgrym could not sit by and watch the devastation being wrought on the surface lands of the North. When word came that Mirabar was in grave danger of falling to the orcs, King Besendar rallied the clans and marched forth from Gauntlgrym to give battle. Such arrayed battle might had not been seen for centuries in the North, but it was all for naught. The orcs were without end and the dwarves managed only to blunt the horde before sheer numbers overwhelmed them. Dwarven sages describe these series of battles as “Delzoun’s Doom” or the “Blunted Axe Battles”, and the death of King Besendar and the flower of Gauntlgrym’s warriors spelled the end for their abode to the south. The orcs came on, devastating Mirabar, Illusk and then finally Gauntulgrym. Areas of Gauntlgrym below were sacked but the city itself remained relatively unscathed. The remaining dwarves, mainly women, beardless children and longbeards, were too few to hold the city and many took to the underways seeking the safety of other holds such as Mithral Hall, Citadel Felbarr and Melairbode, far to the south. The orcs were finally defeated by the roused elves of the Dessarin and the halls of Gauntulgrym reclaimed by returning humans of Illusk, but Delzoun was no more. The fabled Northkingdom of the dwarves, the pinnacle of dwarven craftsmanship and wealth, was now one with the ages and its great capital, mighty Gauntlgrym, was an empty city filled with ghosts and ruled by an empty throne. Category:Former countries Category:History Category:Dwarven locations Category:Dwarven settlements